The Trickster: Trumponian Politics and the Red-Herring Era

When Donald Trump first aired in my orbit in the 90’s, there was no connection so I distanced myself from all things Trump. Then he got into politics and was everywhere on my radar, I couldn’t escape him. Every. Day. In the news, it was something even more wild and absurd and crazy that Trump was purported to have said, and every day it got my eyes bulging and my fighters’ cap on. And as everyday it’s the same thing and it’s creating a world of chaos, and there is no way to escape it, what does one do? How does one like myself, like yourself, like anyone, live in the same world as Trump, in a world where everything that we are, believe and represent is the epitome of everything that he fears, simply because we are not like him?

At first I was leaning more toward the haters’ bandwagon. But I had a moment like Pacha, with the llama in Emperor’s New Groove, I said to myself that no one could be as heartless and disrespectful and horrible as he was being made out to be. So I suggested, as Trumps’ daily tweets made it seem that he was becoming so absurd as to be bordering humour, he had to be PUNKED-ing us, punking the world. It’s like, The biggest punk or practical joke. Ever. Because no one could be as bad as the media makes him out to be, and that’s all I have to go on, as I have never met him before and only heard of him and his locker room talk. Buuuuut, if you can’t believe half of what you hear and less of what you see, then the news could possibly be biased. There are fake tweets purportedly from Trump that made him out to be showing disrespect to veterans, but they weren’t actually made by him. And even if a lot of the bad stuff is true as reported, his behaviour is all for show, he’s hiding something. That is the purpose of the red-herring. And he is the king of red-herrings. He didn’t invent fake news but it seems to follow him like stink on a skunk.

Let’s be honest, the press has not been nice to him. Whenever there is the opportunity to put a photo of him, it is never a flattering one, it usually makes Trump look uncomfortable, or is otherwise unflattering, and not like the angelic photos they would post when Obama was in office. I reason that it just cannot be as painful as it looks, that he is not as bad and horrible as he is made out to be. Like, all the books, comics, stories and otherwise sacred texts I’ve ever read, whenever something looks that bad, it’s a ruse.

So I reason that Trump, and his new verb, being Trumponian, in not reading what yer commenting about but insulting it after admitting to have not researched it, I think that what he’s done, and continues to do, is throw out so many red-herrings that it’s forced people to examine what is the Truth and look into the foundations of what is being said. What this activity could be doing is keeping people busy on so many fronts that we don’t have the resources to look into what his true goals will be or where it will be or what it is. It could all a part of his plan to get people to come together and realize how we all want the same things and how it’s better if we work together and how we can work together. But, like how sometimes people use negative reinforcement to teach, he’s using absurdity.

IF that’s his plan, it’s inGENious. Like THE best play from Barney’s Playbook. Because what Trump has done and continues to do with every tweet, is uniting the world. Plus, when the ruse hits the fan, he’s ultimately going to come off as some sort of Willy Wonka kind of character. Peruse Instagram for half an hour and you’ll see people from all over the world talking about and supporting each other in their truths and the struggles they have had to endure simply for being. It may appear to be only a bunch of photos and emojis, but they are challenging the truths we have been spoon-fed since birth, and sharing it with the world. They are dialoguing on politics, religion, sex and music and books and ideas. Trumponian politics has opened a lot of people’s eyes to what truth is and what it means. He’s made people actively question what is best for us and the answers are causing revolutionary activity in people coming together, in person, in large groups, for good.

There’s a character in some First Nations stories called Coyote, he’s known as the Trickster. He’s a shape-shifter and likes to laugh and have fun. He can be cool but you can’t win against the Trickster; you don’t end up getting what you want when you think he’ll give you what you want, you get something worse. I think Trump is like the Coyote. The Coyote’s nature is to trick, to have fun, to make one believe something that isn’t based on truth. He pretends to be someone he’s not. And the others watching either do or do not know he’s the trickster. His purpose is to reveal cracks in one’s character to help better that person. The Trickster is ultimately not evil or bad, just bored, who doesn’t take into consideration the results of his actions, doesn’t care about them. So, I reason that if Trump is the Coyote, he isn’t a bad guy. He’s trying to trick us into thinking he’s this sexist, racist, narcissistic tyrant by what he’s doing, but he’s ultimately not that, and so those who support him are being tricked into believing he’s being honest and speaking the truth. It’s going to be difficult for those who really believe what he has been tweeting and refuse to see the humour in the punk… there are always those who can’t handle the meme… If he’s punking us, at some point, something’s going to happen like in the Wizard Of Oz, a screen will be pulled back and he’ll be like “Oooooh. Hi!”. And then all the craziness will stop. There will no doubt be an awakening/adjustment period, because it’s going to be the punk of the lifetime. On the world. Slowly, he’ll start pulling back in each one of the red-herrings he flung out and we will no longer be adrift in this harbour of fog caused by real or fake news.

Short digression – Trump reminds me of the guy from the movie Robots, of the big ol’round CEO robot, the old guy who had started the company then got lost and then lost hope on making a difference and was found playing with dominos to pass the time when the younger Robot came along and woke him up.

All this to say that while Trump seems to be a head scratcher or face-palmer, and the only plausible explanation to be able to live in the same world is to think of him as the Trickster, it could be a warning, like the ‘end-is-nigh’ à la Whoville in Horton Hears A Who. One of the good side-effects of Trumponian politics though, is that it’s also causing a lot of self-examination. People are being forced to look at their own biases and shortcomings, and are seeing how we are each imperfectly perfect. Which, is creating a whole new world order of sorts, based on reality and respect and equality. People are standing up for what they believe in, and the joy ride while surfing Instagram that he’s caused is bringing people together.

And if it turns out that he’s not the Trickster, maybe some of his freinds could chill and watch The Meaning of Life with him by Monty Python. I’ll keep watching it play out on social media. And twitter…. And will hafta come up with another way to make sense of it all. Cuz it’s Trumponian.